Levenson Teaching Awards Distributed

White table cloths, elegant place settings, and a tuxedo-clad wait-staff transformed Eliot Dining Hall last night into a gala venue as the Undergraduate Council (UC) issued its annual Joseph R. Levenson Teaching Prizes.

The prizes for teaching excellence are awarded each year to one senior and one junior faculty member, as well as one Teaching Fellow (TF), on the basis of student nominations submitted to the UC.

This year’s recipients—chosen from among nearly 300 nominations—included Harvard College Professor Kathleen M. Coleman, Danziger Associate Professor of Government Devesh Kapur, and TFs Anna Lisa Izzo and Morten Ernebjerg.

UC members presented the winners with praises and commemorative plaques while students and faculty who had participated in the nominations dined and conversed.

Deputy Dean of the College Patricia O’Brien spoke briefly, praising all the faculty in attendance for their commitment to teaching, “unquestionably the most important work at Harvard College.”

Chair of the UC’s Student Affairs Committee Aaron D. Chadbourne ’06 described Coleman, who teaches the Historical Studies B-06, “The Roman Games,” as “demanding, lively, and enthusiastic,” and credited her for personally reading and commenting on every paper from her class of approximately 150 students.

Chadbourne shared other students’ sentiments as well, including a nomination which described Coleman’s class as “a second expos class for me, but this time a beneficial...one.”

Other students praised the individual level of concern the recipients displayed for their students.

Hui “Joanna” E. Yeo ’06, who nominated Kapur and celebrated his achievement last night, recalled talking to him during office hours.

“I was really struck by how interested he was in me as a person,” she said.

Kapur, who is leaving Harvard this year for a position at the University of Texas at Austin, taught Government 1100, “Political Economy and Development.”

“It was just one of those classes that everyone thought was one of the best,” Yeo said after the ceremony. “It was very inspiring—scholarship with a conscience.”

Joshua Patashnik ’07 introduced the final award, which this year was split between two TFs.

“I know what you’re thinking: ‘a shared award? That sounds like the kind of wishy-washy flip-flop stuff that got John Kerry in trouble,’” Patashnik said.

“But they were both exceptionally deserving.”

One of the recipients, Izzo, will return to Italy at the end of the semester to pursue her Ph.D., much to the dismay of students in her two introductory Italian classes, who made a coordinated effort to secure her the nomination.

Earlier in the semester, Izzo treated her students to a home-cooked meal with her mother and brother.

“She genuinely cares about us both as a scholar and as a person,” read Patashnik from the nominations.

Ernebjerg, the other TF recipient, who is a preceptor for quantum mechanics, was in China and unable to personally accept the award.

UC representative Jason L. Lurie ’05 praised Ernebjerg, who continues to teach though he has completed his requirements, for being “organized and enthusiastic,” as well as holding three-hour office hours each week.

In addition to students and faculty members, both the eldest son and brother of Joseph R. Levenson ’41, for whom the awards are named, were in attendance.

Levenson taught history at the University of California, Berkeley until his untimely death in a boating accident in 1969.